Honesty Among Thieves

Most of the time honesty won't buy you so much as a stick of chewing gum. If you're unsentimental and clear-headed enough to steal "Honesty," however, you can use the proceeds to buy yourself a nice pair of shoes.

Honesty walked right out the door of Normandale Community College on Tuesday night and hasn't been seen since. Muddy footprints and a trail of rolled-up dollar bills hint that a getaway car may have been parked in front of the Fine Arts building, but officials at the Bloomington school are baffled.

"Honesty" is, or was, a wire-mesh sculpture by John Ilg in which 316 rolled-up dollar bills were stuffed into the mesh to spell out the word "Honesty." It had hung in the college gallery since Nov. 9 with other works by Ilg. When it was first shown at the Minnesota State Fair in 2008, visitors liked the sculpture so much they added $150 to the piece. It has been exhibited unharmed several times since.

[...]

A student reported the theft to campus security about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Two security officers followed footprints to the parking lot where another student found two rolled bills in an entrance parking spot. The officers retrieved a total of seven bills from the gallery and environs. Security cameras had no record of the crime and there are no suspects.

[...]

Ilg may recreate the piece. "All you can do is laugh," he said.

[Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune]